Morning Bell: Enabling Intelligence To Defend Our Country

It’s shameful and dangerous that Senate Democrats are blocking an extension of surveillance powers that enable our intelligence and law enforcement to defend our country against radical Islamic extremists.

McCain was referring to efforts by some Senators to include measures in an otherwise bipartisan reform of FISA that would punish US companies that helped US intelligence agencies defend our country after 9/11. Amendments by some of the more leftist members of the Senate to alter other provisions of the bipartisan reform were soundlyrejected. The only real obstacle left blocking Senate passage of the bipartisan measure is the insistence by some Democrats that the legislation not include retroactive immunity for businesses that cooperated with government requests to ignore possible technical violations of FISA’s outdated provisions in the wake of 9/11.

It is time for Congress to stop playing politics with national security and pass sensible legislation that meets the needs of those who protect the country from attack while upholding Americans’ civil liberties. Congress only has one more week before temporary FISA reform expires.

Exxon Mobil scored a huge victory against Hugo Chavez leftest revolution in Venezuela yesterday when courts in the US and Britain granted their request to freeze more than $12 billion in assets of Venezuela’s state oil company. The action was in response to Chavez’s seizure of oil company assets in Venezuela.

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